Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth. Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Marilyn Monroe's First Marriage

byEddie Deezen

Marilyn
Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angles on June 1, 1926.
The actual identity of Norma Jeane's father is unknown to this day, but
she was Norma Jeane Mortenson because that was the surname of her mother
Gladys's second husband, Martin Mortenson, therefore it was Gladys'
name at the time. Martin had actually left Gladys before she became
pregnant with Norma Jeane.
Norma
Jeane's early childhood was happy, but unfortunately, Gladys was
mentally unstable (she was later to be confined to a mental
institution). Because of this, and the limited income Gladys made as a
studio film cutter, Norma Jeane spent several years living at various
foster homes and in an orphanage.
By 1941, young Norma Jeane
Mortenson's legal guardians were Grace and "Doc" Goddard. The Goddards
had given her a happy Los Angeles home in recent years, but now Doc had
gotten a job as head of East Coast sales at Adele Precision and the
Goddards decided to move to Virginia. Unfortunately, under
then-California laws, the couple couldn't bring Norma Jeane along with
them.

In September of 1941, Norma Jeane had enrolled at Van Nuys high
school. But a problem arose getting her back and forth to school, as she
didn't have the necessary nickel to pay the bus driver. Enter
the young and virile James Dougherty, who had tannish-blonde hair and
eyes such a deep blue they were almost violet. James agreed to give
Norma Jeane and her best girlfriend a lift back and forth to school
every day. Soon, the two had struck up a friendship and began dating.Five
years Norma Jeane's senior, James was any girl's dream "catch," as
he'd been president of his senior class and captain of the football
team. Norma Jeanne and "Jimmie," as she called him, would drive up to a
trysting spot in the hills called Pop's Willow Lake, where they would
romantically rent a canoe, paddle under the trees, and make out at the
water's edge. The two seemed genuinely fond of each other.

After
the news of Norma's guardians leaving, a "deal" arose of James and
Norma Jeane getting marred. Although the two liked each other, by most
accounts, it was almost entirely a marriage of convenience for the
lonely Norma Jeane, who did not want to go back to an orphanage or
another foster home.On June 19, 1942, the two were married. The
wedding was officiated by a minister, Norma Jeane wore an embroidered
lace wedding dress with long sleeves and veil. The sixteen-year old
bride (Marilyn's birthday was just two weeks days previous) was overcome
with emotion at the ceremony and cried.After they were
married, Jimmie and Norma Jeane settled into a four-room house in Van
Nuys. Every furnishing in the home was chosen personally by Norma Jeane,
from the kitchen cutlery right down to the doormat. Now his wife, Norma
Jeane sometimes addressed her former "Jimmie" as "Daddy" instead.Norma
Jeane was a naive and endearing young housewife, albeit slightly ditzy.
Once, during a rainstorm, she tried to bring a cow in out of the rain
so it wouldn't get wet. She was hopeless as a cook, but loved serving
peas and carrots because "she liked the colors." When told by a friend
that "a pinch" of salt wold improve a cup of coffee, Norma Jeane decided
to add a spoonful instead.The young couple lived an apparently
idyllic life together. On sunny afternoons, they would often drive down
to Santa Monica Beach and dine on cold hot dogs and potato salad
together.Jimmie
learned to ignore the stares of leering sailors as the ogled his
beautiful wife in her a-bit-too-skimpy bathing suit. "She was just a
housewife," remembered Jimmie, "We used to go down to the beach and have
luaus on Saturday nights." The couple's favorite song was Glen Miller's
"Moonlight Serenade." They would listen to it together in a parked car
and dreamily hold each other in their arms.On one eerily
prescient occasion, Norman Jeane threatened to kill herself by jumping
off off the Santa Monica pier, if Jimmie ever left her.According
to Jimmie, he was Marilyn's "first." He said for Norma Jeane, after the
initial pain of their first coupling, she loved sex, and thoroughly
enjoying their encounters.Marilyn and her Jimmie had a near
idyllic first one or two years as a married couple and seemed destined
to spend their lives together in marital bliss. According to Jimmie: "We
loved each other madly. I felt like I was the luckiest guy in the
world." He recalled of the couple's early days, "It was like being on a
honeymoon for a year." But after Jimmie enlisted in the Merchant
Marines in 1943, things were to change. He was soon called up for
overseas duty. Norma Jeane would dutifully write her husband letters
several times a week, but soon she became bored without him. She got a
job at the Radioplane factory, inspecting parachutes and preparing
planes for flight.One day in late 1944, Marilyn met photographer
David Conover, who had come to her factory to take some morale-building
photos of the pretty young girls at work for the U.S. Armed Forces
motion picture unit. Although the pictures taken of Norma Jeane were
never used, she was "hooked."

In
1945, Norma Jeane (undoubtedly bored and looking for some excitement in
her life without her man) defied Jimmie's warnings and signed up to be a
model in Miss Emmaline Snivey's modeling group "The Blue Book Agency."
Norma Jeane soon found she was a natural before the camera. By early
1946, she was a successful model had appeared on 33 magazine covers.
With
the help of Emmaline Snively, she made some acting contacts too and
even got a screen test at 20th Century Fox Studios. By mid-1946, Norma
Jeane had to choose between the relative stability (and boredom) of
marriage to her "Jimmie" or the inherent capriciousness of a full-time
career as an actress.Jimmie received the divorce notice from
Norma Jeane when he was on duty and ready to go into Shanghai. After
four years of vicissitudes, the marriage of Norma Jean Mortenson and
James Dougherty came to an end.Norma Jeane would soon change her
name to the much catchier "Marilyn Monroe." Her career in show business
is familiar to all, as she was to become the most famous and popular
movie actress of all-time.After their divorce, James Dougherty
was to re-marry, to a woman named Pat. Aware of her predecessor, Pat
would not allow her husband to ever watch Marilyn Monroe movies on
television or even mention her name.He was to recall: "I never
knew Marilyn Monroe and I don't claim to have any insights to her to
this day. I knew and loved Norma Jeane. I destroyed all my letters from
Norma Jeane. Hundreds of them," he said (probably at his new wife's
demand or possibly to placate her).One final irony: after he
finished his military service, James Dougherty got a job as a policeman.
One night in 1950, in Los Angeles, he was assigned to crowd control at a
movie premiere. It was a Marilyn Monroe film- The Asphalt Jungle. Mercifully, the two did not see each other at the premiere.

Marilyn
Monroe aka Norma Jeane Mortenson Doughterty, died on August 5, 1962, of
a fatal drug overdose. Her ex, James "Jimmie" Dougherty, died of
complications of leukemia on August 18, 2005. He outlived her by 43
years.I guess every person's life can be broken down into a
series of "what if's?" And one is left wondering what would have
happened to James Dougherty and his pretty wife Norma Jeane if he had
never enlisted in the merchant marines on that long ago day in 1943.

Forum

Twitterings In The Key Of Life

Videos

Naturally Friends

Playlist

FAIR USE NOTICE: Documents on Carolina Naturally MAY contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. This non-profit use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 of the US Copyright Law which states: "Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." Some linked pages may contain offensive material, we take no responsibility or assume liability for their content or views contained therein and we do not monitor linked content.